Follow the Money - ... do they really know what they are talking about?

WSJ ^ | SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 | JAMES GRANT

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

Mankind missed a bet 2,000 years ago when no one thought to invest $100 or its equivalent in Roman coin in a certificate of deposit compounding at 2% a year forever. The principal balance today of this ungifted benefaction would come to the astounding sum of $15,861,473,276,036,900,000. That would be $2.3 billion, before tax, for every man, woman and child on earth. But the ancients bungled, perpetuating the problem of scarcity and leaving the way open for Sylvia Nasar to write her "Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius," a survey of economic thought from Charles Dickens to Paul Samuelson and beyond

-snip-

The book is a kind of portrait gallery of economic thinkers, each artfully set down in his or her time and place. Thus, in post-World War I Vienna, the fortunate were preoccupied by the destruction of the Austrian currency, the krone. The less fortunate, having no krone, worried about starving to death. The author quotes a conversation between Anna Eisenmenger, a middle-class Viennese diarist, and her know-it-all banker.

"If you had bought Swiss francs when I suggested, you would not have lost three-quarters of your fortune," said he.

"Lost!" she exclaimed in horror.

"Why don't you think the krone will recover again."

Her money was invested in government bonds. "Surely," she said, "there can't be anything safer than that."

"But, my dear lady," the banker replied, "where is the State which guaranteed those Securities to you? It is dead."

-snip-

The author plainly sides with the interventionists, but she calls a Red a Red.

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

This book review is a nice review of how Economists have fared economically.

[silverleaf]

read later

[BfloGuy]

Some economists understand very well what's going on. They all tend to be of the Austrian School. They are the only economics school which understands that all of our economic problems are caused by government interference in the market and central banks' printing of money.

Of course, they are completely ignored by the government, mainstream academics and the spoon-fed press.

[taxcontrol]

I have not heard of the Austrian school of economics. Do you have a URL or a pointer where I can get a good overview?

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

This review mentions the Keynesian’s inability to explain the 1921 depression recovery but it has more of a historical focus than today’s current economists.

What I found interesting was that Uncle Milty did not believe in a gold standard and instead an active, if slow, expansion of paper money. Maybe others here already knew this but I didn’t.

[Darth Reardon]

http://mises.org/

[SunkenCiv]

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Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius by Sylvia Nasa Kindle Edition Unabridged Audible Audio Edition Unabridged CD Audiobook

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks MontaniSemperLiberi.

Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius

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